Rella is a natural-born storyteller.
Over a bed of lush harmonies and guitar melodies, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist spins tales of unrequited love, loss and personal growth. “I don’t always write about true stories,” Rella says of her songwriting process. “I like to fictionalize.” For Rella, her songs aren’t limited to her reality; every song is an opportunity to create a new world, explore a new perspective and empathize with someone else’s pain. Drawing inspiration from singer-songwriters like Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell and Lorde, Rella gets to the heart of complicated relationships. She approaches indie-pop through the country lens she was raised on, singing with a natural clarity and tenderness.
Rella is a true child of the Nashville music scene, having attended the same high school as Taylor Swift. She grew up surrounded by the aspiring musicians that Nashville attracts, participating in songwriting clubs and choir in highschool. It wasn’t until a severe heartbreak at the end of college that her career as Rella began. Born Sarah Baker, Rella took on the name of her grandfather’s grandmother, a Vaudeville performer. She found solace in songwriting, her first love, and released her first single “Intervention” in 2019: “It’s an act of violence, you living so close to my space / cause everytime I wanna be free from you / I’m scanning every crowd for your face.”
In 2020, Rella contributed three songs to the soundtrack of “The Last Christmas Party,”an indie film that follows the relationships of three college couples, on Amazon Prime Video. Her new single “Heavenly Bodies” is the latest chapter in her storybook, written about an illicit daydream.